FOH is manned by an AURUS console with 40 faders and the full complement of DSP, a CRESCENDO console is used for monitoring and an extensive NEXUS network with a STAR and four Base Devices connect it all together.

Everything is spectacular in this show of superlatives: the stars, the music and the effects. “Rocky” is one of the most elaborate German musical productions of recent years. Produced by Stage Entertainment, Sylvester Stallone and the boxers Vladimir and Vitali Klitschko, Rocky had its world premiere in Hamburg on the second weekend in November.

An AURUS console with 40 faders and the full complement of DSP for the FOH-mixing, a CRESCENDO console for monitoring and an extensive NEXUS network with a STAR and four Base Devices connecting it all together. This is the audio setup for Rocky at the Hamburg TUI Operettenhaus theatre where the show is staged.

“Sound quality, reliability and flexibility were the three main reasons for opting for the Mediagroup mixing and routing technology”, says Andreas Hammerich, head of the sound department at Stage Entertainment Germany.

For multi award winning sound designer Peter Hylenski naturally it was the sound quality that mattered most. “AURUS CRESCENDO and NEXUS sound quality is unrivaled in the digital console market”, said the sound designer of Broadway productions such as Shrek and Rock of Ages.

Hylenski’s sound engineer for the premiere Peppe Andersson adds his praise for how the technical capabilities of the consoles contribute to the optimum result: “The desks let me control everything that matters, for example I can control the digital gains for the FOH and monitoring consoles independently, although both consoles operate in one network and share the same resources.”

Even more than other shows of this magnitude Rocky demands enormous flexibility from its audio network. Approximately 400 individual logic circuits have been programmed individually to meet every conceivable performance situation. One example is when musicians need to change instruments. They can trigger an individual mute with a foot switch without affecting the scene automation.

Other custom functions include MIDI triggers for effects, automatic fail-safe switches for players and a monitoring system for the wireless microphones.

“The remarkable thing is that that virtually all logic circuits could be achieved within NEXUS thus eliminating external devices. This is not only cost effective but also makes possible simple linkage to the AURUS scene automation. There is no comparable system on the market with this level of logic function integration,” explains Christian Fuchs, Mediagroup Live and Theatre Application Specialist.

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